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Windows 7: Setting up a RAID 0 from an existing Windows 7 Install

As part of the chipset driver installation, it also installed the RAID and SATA drivers that Nvidia provides.

I have a 300GB HDD on the primary IDE channel although I currently boot from one of my SATA hdd's.

How would I go about transferring my OS to a RAID 0?

Would it be possible to just system image my current OS onto the IDE drive and then format my two SATA hdd's, enable RAID in BIOS and then use Seagate Disc Wizard to install the system image onto the RAID 0?

Is seagate disc wizard capable of transferring to a RAID drive??

Have the RAID drivers definitely been installed with the Chipset drivers and will Windows recognise the RAID array?

Have heard that you have to set up a boot partition the same size as the image on the RAID 0, would it then be possible to expand that to use the entire RAID partition.

I have been looking into SSD but I have all my programs on my SATA HDD so the drive has about 249GB of data on it, that would need a big SSD!!

Other than that any tips on how I can get an SSD of a small size to still run all the currently installed software without having to reinstall it all?

There's a chance you could run sysprep, then create an image, then lay the image down after you create the array. That might work, but you would do all of that for very little to no gain, plus likely higher seek times. RAID0 is all hype. That's been proven 5-6 years ago, and still remains true.

If you want real performance, you are on the right track with an SSD. 249 GB of programs is a massive amount. Are you sure that isn't including data files as well, like docs, pictures, music, etc? If not, you always would have the option of installing some apps on a second drive, such as a much larger HDD. I had to do this with a 60 GB SSD, then a 128 GB SSD. Now that I have a 240 GB, I have plenty of space for all of my apps and games.

There are a lot of games installed as well, some of these I guess I could uninstall, its just that some of the software I no longer have the product keys for, I have started another post after reading on here about RAID 0, on how to get a decent SSD install, so I definitely think that is the way forward.

It sounds like RAID 0 can be a real headache!

I am currently thinking to really pair down the install by removing everything that can be reinstalled and then doing a disc image. I have got it down already to 194GB, that's without removing games.

All my music and pictures are on my IDE drive, about another 250gb there.

If i can get it to 128Gb it may just be doable, I can get a 128Gb for about £100 GBP or so.

I understand about your games, if you can find the product keys, all games and user files can be installed on another drive. Windows 7 takes up about 17GB. Your programs don't take as much space as you think. I have run a decent OS from a 64GB SSD with no problems and space to spare. Games, user files and some rarely used programs installed on another drive. Set up right, you should have no problems with an SSD, and I'm certain you will be thankful you made the change.

Setting up a RAID 0 from an existing Windows 7 Install

Rebuilding RAID 1 with Existing W7 installHello there folks,
Being one who is not new to hardware and repairs I have finally found something to stump me...RAID.
I have 2 identical drives, one with a healthy installation of W7 64 but Ultimate, one slightly used. I also have an MSI 790XT-g45 Motherboard with 8 gigs...

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converting existing install to raid 0i want to change my existing install too raid0 i currently have install/programs on one 1tb drive and media/games on another 1tb drive, i have a spare 2tb drive unused
what are your suggestions so i reduce the amount of lost programs etc
running 7 64bit
many thanks
kevin

Installing SSD on an existing RAID system?Hi,
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Current Setup:
2 - 500GB drives in RAID 0
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I use the RAID 1 drives for backup purposes only.

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